Brett Wexler prints negatives, not pictures.

For most of the 20th century photographs were presented as silver gelatin prints on paper. The artist burned and dodged the light flowing from the enlarger to control the look of the image. Except for a few, less educated viewers of the Kodak Brownie "cameras don’t lie" school, most knew that all photographs, even the most famous Ansel Adams work entitled Moonrise over Hernandez, NM take immense effort (including choice of chemicals, papers in addition to enlarger control techniques.)

Computers change Brett Wexler's direction

By 1980 the computer was blanketing the image marketplace with variety. In addition, computers were programmed to reproduce prints of monitor images, with increasing accuracy. Even before digital cameras, an artist could scan a work either naiscent or completed into a computer. Modification of the image became relatively simple opening doors to greater creativity than had ever existed. In Brett Wexler's opinion, this development was similar to the discovery of linen and oil paint which made it possible to make large wall art without the problem of wet plaster for frescos. Although Brett Wexler had already discovered the same methods as Dan Burkholder and Mark Nelson, these artists made the production of negatives easy for any artist no matter how right brained he or she might be. This process became more easy with the invention of OHP transparency film by pictorico While most artists chose to make final prints, Brett Wexler among others chose to print negatives which could later be used to make prints using any of the techniques developed over the past 100 years.

The Final Presentation

In this gallery Brett Wexler presents images printed with variations of silver on gelatin coated paper. Most were completed prior to the beginning of the 21st century.

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